Scrofa
|name = Scrofa|kingdom = Animalia|phylum = Chordata|class = Mammalia|order = Artiodactyla|familia = Suidae}} The '''scrofa' is a species of pig descended from the wild boar (Sus scrofa), which is endemic to the limestone karst plateaus on the Mediterranean Salt Flat of 5 million AD. A young scrofa is called a scroflet. Evoloution The scrofas are descended from the wild boar (Sus scrofa) which ranged across Europe in the Human era. Being highly adaptable generalist animals, eating a wide variety of different foods, they were well-poised to adapt to the rapid changes brought on by the closing of the Strait of Gibraltar, and, trapped on the karst plateaus, became smaller, with more elongated bones, sharper hooves, and longer snouts. Biology Scrofas are similar physiologically to their ancestors, but are smaller - only half the height of the bulkier wild boar - and more lightly-built. Their legs are thin and agile, with elongated bones and delicate, pointed hooves, the tips of which they walk on, giving them a stiff-legged gait. Although it looks unusual, this is an efficient way of moving over the karst, allowing them to prance agilely across the clint slabs and over grykes. Their flexible snouts, tipped with long lips, are longer than those of wild boars were, and are essentially short "trunks". The ears of adult scrofas are long, drooping, and tufted, moreso in the bull males, and their hair colour ranges from grey to brown, with darker stripes on the sides, face, and brow. Behaviour Like their ancestors, scrofas are generalist omnivores which will eat almost anything. The bulk of their diet is composed of plant material, but they will also scavenge carrion and eggs, and even kill small, slow-moving animals. Their "trunks" are particularly useful for searching for food down grykes, wider examples of which they will enter in search of food. Scrofas are mainly social animals which live in small family herds, led by a pair of dominant females and composed mainly of their offspring. The only males in the herd are the juveniles, which leave upon reaching sexual maturity. Adult males are aggressive and solitary, hunting and foraging on their own, mating with the dominant female leaders of herds, and fighting other lone males for these mating privileges. Scroflets are born in the late spring, in litters of between three and six, and are protected by other members of the herd. During foraging, two or three scrofas will always be acting as sentries, looking out for predators. Ecology s may prey on scroflets, but adult scrofas are more a threat to it that it is to them.]] As scrofas live in in an environment where food is scarce, almost anything is on the menu for them, including cryptile eggs layed in grykes, which scrofas can reach down using their long snouts. They may also kill smaller or slower animals they counter on the karst. Adult scrofas, especially the aggressive boars, are too large to be harmed by any predators on the karst, but scroflets that stray from their herd may be preyed on by birds of prey and grykens. Scrofa herds are safer on the edge of the karst, near the salt pan, but there is little food there: the most fertile regions on the karst are the uplands, the home of the gryken. Appearances In the documentary In "The Vanished Sea," a gryken attacks a scroflet, but is chased off by a scrofa boar. The scrofa herd also eats some cryptile eggs. A gryken later attacks and kills a young scrofa, scaring away another scroflet which accidentally runs off the karst and becomes lost on the salt pan. It wanders for a day, encountering only a pool of undrinkable hypersaline water and a feeding cryptile, before dying. List of appearances * The Future Is Wild **1x03. The Vanished Sea **''The Future Is Wild'' (US) *''The Future Is Wild: A Natural History of the Future'' *''The Future Is Wild: The Living Book'' Notes *"Scrofa" is the specific name of the modern wild boar, as well as the Latin and Italian term for a sow. The original Latin term comes from "digger" or "rooter". Gallery Documentary= FIW_1x3_Scrofa_herd.png FIW_1x3_Gryken_stalking_scrofa.png FIW_1x3_Scroflet.png FIW 1x3 Scrofa.png FIW_1x3_Scrofa_squealing.png FIW_1x3_Scrofa_charge.png FIW_1x3_Scrofa_roaring.png FIW_1x3_Scrofas_eating_eggs.png FIW_1x3_Gryken_and_kill.png FIW_1x3_Scrofa_wandering.png FIW_1x3_Scrofa_lost.png FIW_1x3_Scrofa_and_salt.png FIW_1x3_Scrofa_at_lake.png FIW_1x3_Scrofa_and_cryptile.png FIW_1x3_Scroflet_dead.png |-|Promotional= Scrofa-600px.jpg Scrofa chasing gryken.png Scrofa cropped.png In other languages Navigation Category:Animals Category:Mammals Category:Organisms of 5 million AD Category:Organisms of Europe Category:Organisms of the Mediterranean Salt Flat Category:5 million AD